Jesus Christ remains a man for all eternity, a truth demonstrated by His post-resurrection appearances and ascension. The sermon highlights His genuine humanity, emphasizing that His resurrected body was flesh and bone, as evidenced by His eating with disciples and allowing them to handle Him. This enduring humanity is crucial for our salvation, as it provides a perfect, sinless substitute acceptable to God, and assures us of His present and eternal sustaining power because He can sympathize with our infirmities. Therefore, Christ is the God-man, fully divine and fully human, offering us both an almighty arm to rest upon and human sympathy to appeal to.
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he returned to John's Gospel chapter one and that one verse that we've been examining for two previous messages we want to examine it again tonight John one and verse fourteen a very familiar verse where we read and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth and of course the one word in that verse is word that is very important because you'll notice it is written with a capital W and that word is identified in the opening verse and the opening verses really especially the first three in the beginning was the word And the word was with God, and the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And that word, according to verse fourteen, became flesh, and tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let us pray together. Our Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. To speak of him is to speak of the greatest personage in the universe. He is co-equal and co-eternal and co-extensive with you, our Father.
And we're thrilled when we consider him. And we pray, O God, that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart will be acceptable in thy sight. and that thy name will be exalted and adored as we wait in thy holy presence speak to our hearts and cause thy people to rejoice at who our Lord Jesus Christ is and will thank you in his worthy name. Amen. John chapter one is a sublime passage. And it declares to us that our Lord Jesus Christ is co-equal, co-eternal, and co-extensive with God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit.
Now, we have been examining verse fourteen in particular that declares that the word became flesh and dwells among us. As we have been examining our Lord, we find that he's a true man, that he possesses genuine humanity, in every sense of the word. In John one and verse fourteen we are noticing three great truths from that verse. The first is Jesus became a man. We examined that last Sunday night. The second one is Jesus was a man.
And we examined that this morning. Tonight We're dealing with a great subject that Jesus remains a man. And when you consider that Jesus is a man in the glory, and he will be a man throughout eternity, we can understand something of Genesis chapter one, where it tells us, and God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus are in conference. For they say, let us make man in our image after our likeness so tonight we want to conclude this series on the humanity of Christ Jesus remains a man the humanity of Christ did not end with his death and Calvary's cross and we have witness to that truth in John chapter twenty Mary Magdalene, when she went to the sepulcher, the body of Jesus was missing, and you remember it was she to whom our
Lord appeared first, after he had arisen from the dead, and when Mary met the risen Christ, she supposed that he was a gardener. In other words, he appeared like any other man. She didn't realize that it was none other than the risen Lord until he quoted her name. And when he said, Mary, she recognizes, for he calls his own sheep by name. Furthermore, in Luke chapter twenty-four, the very chapter before John one, the last chapter of Luke's gospel, there were two on the road to a man.
and they walked together and were sad. And the scripture says he drew near and he walked with them. They thought he was a visitor to that part of the country. He asked them what they were talking about. They said, are you a stranger in these parts and you don't understand what took place in Jerusalem in the last few days? And they invited him in overnight. And he was made known unto them in the breaking of the bread. Now in Luke chapter twenty four, that same chapter, I want you to turn with me to this passage.
Verses thirty seven through thirty nine. Our Lord appears that very same night to his disciples behind closed doors. He just simply appeared in their midst. And verse thirty seven of Luke twenty four says, for they were terrified and affrighted. And suppose that they had seen a spirit, and he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, Have you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before them. Here in this passage that we read together, when our Lord appeared to his disciples after the resurrection, they supposed they had seen a spirit. I believe I would have been just like the disciples on that occasion. But he says to them, Behold my hands and my feet. Handle me and see.
A spirit hath not flesh and bone, as you see me have. In other words, we sing occasionally, and it was the opposite side of the page from one of the songs we did sing tonight. The blood that Jesus once shed for sin, for me is my Redeemer upon the tree. The blood that seteth us prisoner free shall never lose its power. The blood of Christ was shed on Calvary's cross when he died for the sins of men. And now he has a body. That same body that was laid in the grave has been raised from the dead.
It is a flesh. and bone body. And our Lord joined the disciples for supper. And you'll notice it was a meal that proved fatal to the fish, for he ate the fish, but it also became a devastating argument to the docetist, who claimed that Christ only appeared. He wasn't real. He didn't have a real body. Well, if you don't have a real body, you don't eat. But our Lord ate after his resurrection. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ was as real after his resurrection as it was before his death.
The fact is, his body has been raised to a level where it could now move in the spiritual world. He could come into the room without opening the door. He could now move in the spiritual world. This is a wonderful truth. The Word of God says we shall be like him. I mentioned this morning the heresy of Arianism and that the heresy of Arianism which denies the deity of Christ. also subtly denies the humanity of Christ.
The Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Christ, but they also deny the humanity of Christ. If you read their books, I'm going to quote their book as best I can, from Zechariah chapter fourteen, where it speaks of the coming of the Lord in power and great glory, delivering Israel in that day. When our Lord returns to earth, it says there, and his feet shall stand in the latter day upon the Mount of Olives, and the mountain shall cleave in the midst thereof.
And there shall be a great valley. And in their one book that I read, it says, our Lord must have big feet in that day. they deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. And it's good to keep that in mind when you talk with them. And you can insist on the bodily resurrection of Christ from this passage in Luke chapter twenty-four. It is one of the greatest passages there is. Another instance that Jesus remains a man Forty days after the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, he gave his final message to his disciples.
He says, But ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in Judea and in all Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And then he was taken up into heaven before their very eyes. And as he was taken up into heaven, you remember the two heavenly beings appeared unto his disciples. and they said in Acts one verse eleven this same Jesus all those words don't miss them that same Jesus who opened the eyes of the blinds who cleansed the lepers who raised the dead who had compassion on the multitude this same Jesus who is taken from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
And therefore, when we speak that our Lord Jesus is now in glory at the right hand of the Father, we can say this. In Acts chapter seven and verse fifty-six, Stephen was martyred. And as Stephen was dying, he says, I see heaven opened. And the son of man standing at the right hand of the throne of God. He is there in heaven, and he's there as a man. Furthermore, in Acts chapter seventeen, verses thirty and thirty-one, the scripture says that God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, for he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man.
that he hath ordained, and he hath given assurance unto all in that he hath raised him from the dead. And the one who is the judge of the earth, who is the judge ordained so by God the Father, is a man, the man Christ Jesus. Furthermore, when you come over to Philippians chapter two, and I think it's verse ten, where it says, At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore we can say with full assurance Jesus neither laid aside his deity when he came to earth nor his humanity when he returned to heaven.
I like what eighteen person wrote in his book He said, the very dust that we see ground under the foot of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, speaking of Adam, we see in the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascending to the very throne of the universe, there to sit with God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the imperial reign of the universe. And I want to tell you, When you read words like that, it thrills me through and through, and I'm sure it does you as well.
In other words, the dust of earth is at the right hand of the majesty on high. Our Lord forever is in the glory. Warfield had this to say. And when I speak of Warfield, I'm speaking of probably the greatest theologians. that was produced in this country. The only one who could probably be greater would be Jonathan Edwards. But Warfield, his works are excellent. And Warfield said, all that man as man is, that Christ is to eternity.
Well, what does that mean to us? What does that mean to us? That brings us to application number one tonight. And application number one tonight is simply the humanity of Christ assures our salvation. Let's begin with these deities. If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could he help us? If Jesus Christ is not true man, How could he help us? Thank God he is both, and therefore he can help us, and we have the assurance of salvation.
This is why theologians speak of the essential humanity of Christ. It is essential to our salvation. Why is it that it's so essential to our salvation? Simply this, my only hope of ever being saved is in a substitute that is acceptable to God. If I'm ever going to be saved, I need a substitute that is acceptable to God. Why? You see, well, The substitute would have to be God himself, because it is God that I have wronged.
My sins are against God. Your sins are too. It is God that we are wrong. We wronged God in the person of Adam the first, when Adam rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. And since we were born in sin and shaken in iniquity, we have continually wronged God. And only God can provide a substitute of infinite value. And our blessed Savior is an infinite substitute. However, the substitute would also have to be a sinless human being.
sinless so that the death penalty he bore would not be for his own sin and human because the human body and soul could only suffer the physical and spiritual death penalty prescribed our Lord it was totally necessary totally essential that he be true man as well as true God. Oh, and my Lord Jesus, I find exactly such a Savior, and I find exactly such a substitute.
And I can say in the words of another, because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the just is satisfied to look on him. and pardon me. And this brings into view the grand truth of Psalm twenty-two, where we have the prayer of the Savior uttered on Calvary's cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring, O my God, I cry in the daytime, and thou hearest not?
And in the night season, and I'm not silent, but thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted, and thou didst deliver them. And throughout thy Old Testament, you can't show me one person who's on the page of the Old Testament that trusted in God that he did not deliver. but he cries out in agony but I'm a worm and no man a reproach of men and despise of the people you see on the cross and Calvary's head because our Lord Jesus was a man it's only as a man a human being that he could bear the curse, the suffering, and the penalty that was prescribed by God.
Friends, we have a wonderful Savior, and it's because of who He is that we have the assurance of our salvation. But there's a second application tonight, and it is this. the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ assures us that his sustaining power is available now and forever. Jesus remains a man. Hebrews chapter two eighteen says, For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
What a what a statement he knows what it is to be tempted and he's able to help those who are he is available now Hebrews four verses fifteen and sixteen says concerning him for we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. This is the high priest to whom we pray, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmity, who is able to help us now.
And he has pledged himself to be with his people forever and ever. He says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. And the blessed truth of First Thessalonians four, so shall we ever be with the Lord. And the truth of Second Corinthians five says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. In other words, that one at God's right hand is a man.
who understands us in every detail. What comfort that is. Let me quote Warfield again. And Warfield said this, the glory of the incarnation is that it presents to our adoring gaze, not a humanized God or a deified man, but a true God man. one who is all that God is, and at the same time all that man is. One whose almighty arm we can rest, and to whose human sympathy we can appeal.
What do we say to that? We simply say, Hallelujah. What a Savior. Let's pray again. Our Father, it's thrilling to consider our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, the Word became flesh and tabernacle among us, and we beheld His glory. And Father, it's been our privilege to behold the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for that privilege. We thank you that he not only became a man, but he was a man, and that he's a man for all eternity.
He is the God-man, the one who knows the needs of thy holy throne, and who is sympathetic to the needs of these people, and he's able to meet both. We praise you, O God. for your wondrous grace and for the wisdom that is revealed in the redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus. Take this word now and bless it to every heart for Jesus' sake. Amen.